Employment
The specialist employment practice at Lewis Silkin has the depth and breadth of lawyers to provide clients with the right team for their specific needs. The group has dedicated groups for High Court litigation, collective employment law, data protection and employee privacy, health and safety law and partnerships law. Richard Miskella leads the employment team, whilst Michael Anderson spearheads the firm’s High Court litigation practice. Toni Lorenzo is well known in the market for his injunctive work, and Karen Baxter’s primary focus is on high-profile investigations. Michael Burd has established experience in high-value disputes and senior terminations. Shalina Crossley has a niche focus on racial and socio-economic discrimination claims, with James Davies as a reference for thought leadership cases. David Hopper and Carla Watling are also active members of the team. David Regan joined the practice from Squire Patton Boggs in October 2024.
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Profile
Work Department
Employment, reward and immigration.
Position
Joint managing partner in employment, reward and immigration department. Particular focus on media and financial services sectors. Specialisms in high-value litigation, including senior executive terminations, High Court claims (such as restrictive covenant disputes, bonus claims, claims for breach of confidentiality and fiduciary duties, and team moves), whistle blowing, and restructuring. CEDR-accredited mediator.
Career
Trained Pinsents; qualified 2001; associate Lewis Silkin LLP 2001-09; partner Lewis Silkin 2009 to date.
Memberships
Employment Lawyers Association; CEDR; Ius Laboris.
Education
Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield; Keble College Oxford (1995 BA (Hons) English language and literature); Trinity College Dublin (1996 MPhil Anglo-Irish Literature); Nottingham Law School (1998-99 CPE and PGDL).
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Knowledge of the practice area, strategic judgement and high quality drafting. Examples of stand-out partners include, in my opinion, Shalina Crossley and Sarah McWhinney.’
‘Colin Leckey is my go to. Super smart, approachable, client focussed.’
‘Great people to work with - both first class knowledge and down to earth and practical in their approach. They are really good at having their ears to the ground of what is in the pipeline with Employment law - if changes are mooted they know about it and if changes are coming they will have already put together an action plan on what clients need to do and by when. Their Rockhopper service is great for low-cost, lower value business-as-usual type Tribunal claims, in particular. ’
‘Sean Dempsey is my main contact. He is always available at short notice and easy to chat things through, working together to formulate a plan. ’
‘Tarun Tawakley is an excellent all-rounder. Very commercial, great in front of the business and exceptional at forming a strategy for tricky cases. ’
‘Sarah McWhinney is very pragmatic and knowledgeable and able to work against tight deadlines making you feel at ease even when time is running against you. ’
‘Rachel Ward is brilliant lawyer, a pleasure to work with and a real star (my go to solicitor for referrals). Particularly strong on knotty and lengthy cases.
- 'Tarun Tawakley is a market leader in worker status litigation, has a unique eye for the wider tactical picture in a case. A pleasure to work with.'
- 'Impressive strength in depth across all areas of employment law.'
- 'An excellent practice with great strength in depth. Their collegiality means you always speak to the relevant expert for your issue. Creative in how they provide services.'
Work highlights
Conducted an external investigation for Banijay into allegations of inappropriate behaviour by presenter Greg Wallace.
Advised Aon on a conspiracy claim seeking injunctive relief and damages arising from alleged unlawful poaching raids across diverse jurisdictions.
Advised Adecco on successfully defending an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court by their European Works Council regarding the need to engage with their employees’ representatives on projects such as workforce restructurings.